Computers are arguably one of the greatest technical accomplishments of mankind. They provide man with an ever increasing source of information, data manipulation capabilities, convenience, and entertainment. Computer entertainment has many forms, including computer games, interactive multimedia presentations, and, more recently, broadcast television.
To receive a television broadcast, a computer needs to be equipped with a tuner.
Depending on the type of tuner employed, the computer may receive traditional radio frequency (RF) broadcast television channels, cable broadcast channels, or satellite broadcast channels. In addition, the tuner may be able to receive radio broadcasts. By adjusting the tuner, a channel is selected and subsequently processed and displayed on the computer screen, monitor, or provided to a television.
Due to the processing power of a computer, the computer can provide a wide variety of services that a regular television cannot. For example, if the television broadcast has associated closed caption, the computer can record the closed caption data, along with video images of the broadcast, and store it as a word document. In addition, the computer can sample many television channels and provide a fixed number of these samples on the computer screen at one time. Such multiple channel display may be used to select which channel to view. When the selection is made, the channel selected fills the computer screen.
While the multiple channel display allows the user to select which channel to view, it does not, however, allow the user to preview a selection before it fills the computer screen. As such, if the user does not want to view the selected channel, s/he must reinitiate the fixed multi-channel display. Further, because the number of channels is fixed, the user is not allowed to customize the number of channels viewed, or which channels to include in the multi-channel display.
Therefore, a need exists for a computer system that allows a computer user to preview a channel in a multi-channel display and to customize the display to meet his/her personal needs.